3. GAIN AGREEMENT

Is this stage, you repeat the problem back to the caller. This is both to confirm the details, and to reassure them that you are listening.

SUPPORT: “Anjit, can I just confirm I’ve understood the problem? You asked your Robo-Librarian to shelve the new returns, there was a loud band, smoke came out of the casing, and now it’s chasing patrons with the works of J. K . Rowling.”

CALLER: “Yes. Although it’s moved on to graphic novels now.”

4. EMPATHISE, APOLOGISE, REASSURE

I’ve chanced Dan Crawley’s order here slightly.

Empathise means letting the caller know you agree this is a problem.

Apologise means saying sorry and accepting the blame if the problem is clearly the fault of your company.

Reassure means letting them know that you will take on the responsibility of solving their problem.

SUPPORT: “That sounds like a very frustrating problem. Let me say I’m sorry for the trouble our product is causing you, and that I will take personal responsibiliry to resolve this matter.”

CALLER: “Thank you. That’s very kind. Can we get going on this? The children’s storytime group are hiding under the shelves in terror.”

SUPPORT: “Of course.”

5. PROBLEM SOLVING

The art of IT problem solving is outside the scope of this article. But Crawley mentions an important point: you need to keep reassuring the caller that you are working on their problem. If all they hear is silence, they will feel like you’ve abandoned them.

One way to ressure tehm is to describe to them what steps you’re taking to solve their problem.

SUPPORT: “I’m just going to bring up the service log for your robot. Hang on one second…”

Antoher is to give them some idea of how long your tasks will take:

SUPPORT: “It’s going to take me about five minutes to read these log files. Do you want to wait on the line, or shall I call you back?”

6. CONFIRM RESOLUTION

Once you’ve found a solution, and you think you’ve fixed the problem, confirm that with the caller.

This gives them the chance to tell you if the solution is actually working, or if they still need more help.

SUPPORT: “Ah, I think I see the problem. Your robot’s RAMPAGE setting is set to ON. I’m just going to set that to OFF remotely. What’s it doing now?”

CALLER: “It’s stopped throwing books and started cleaning up the mess.”

SUPPORT: “So have we solved the problem?”

CALLER: “I think so, yes.”

SUPPORT: “Great! I’ll close this ticket. Please let us know if you have any more problems.”